On the question of independent contractor protection, a once-promising road of bipartisanship faces the wrecking ball of politics as usual
This article is the last in a three-part series on the worker classification debate. The first and second articles can be found here and here.
Previously in this series, I’ve discussed a way to end the ongoing disagreement over independent contractor classification, as well as some of the unseen industries that get overlooked in the debate. Regardless of whether someone is in a “traditional” contracting position—such as being a real estate agent or a financial adviser—or works as a delivery driver in the gig economy, the threat of forcible reclassification as an employee looms large across the American economy.
More than any other factor, American workers care most about flexibility when it comes to their jobs—even exceeding salary and benefit concerns. Given that working as a 1099 contractor provides some of the most flexibility and autonomy of any working arrangement, it’s safe to predict that interest in contracting status will only grow in the years ahead. But with the criticism coming from the political left about the dearth of benefits available to contractors, these roles are under constant threat.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Discourse
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C. Jarrett Dieterle is a nonresident senior fellow at the R Street Institute and a legal policy fellow for the Manhattan Institute.
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